After a successful year, executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles announced their creation of a new consulting unit Heidrick Consulting, forming a relationship with leadership consulting and culture shaping businesses in order to establish a suite of offerings.

Having provided services in leadership consulting and executive search, which brought $582.4 million to the firm in 2016 – a 9.6% increase on 2015 revenues – HR firm Heidrick & Struggles has launched a dedicated consulting unit. The executive search specialists completed the purchase of Co Company in Autumn 2015, with the London-based advisory boutique, specialising in organisational performance services, settling on its four senior advisors becoming a part of the Heidrick & Struggles family.

Co Company Chairman Colin Price was, meanwhile, named the global lead of Heidrick & Struggles' Leadership Consulting practice. Heidrick & Struggles has laid down a scalable foundation for Heidrick Consulting, having also hired and acquired personnel who will be in charge of providing their clients with a myriad of leadership advisory solutions.

With the branding and corporate structure now in place, the new Heidrick Consulting arm is aiming to deliver a leadership offering to clients, including leadership assessment & development, organization & team effectiveness, and culture shaping services. The consulting business will complement Heidrick & Struggles’ core executive search business, targeting increased growth for the broader company through bettering the use of relevant tools and intellectual property, and finding methods to increase efficiency savings.

According to Heidrick & Struggles President and CEO, Krishnan Rajagopalan, "In addition to helping our clients around the globe identify and develop top leadership talent, we equip leaders with the skills, tools and insights to inspire and lead transformational change that delivers on their organisation's purpose," Rajagopalan claimed. "Our consultants draw from deep expertise in human behavior and organisational culture combined with data-driven solutions grounded in empirical research."

The market for consulting services has expanded immensely with increased demands for leadership and culture, something the firm hopes to gain momentum from, having promised to offer services which will be integrated into a single business that aims to instruct clients on how to improve performance at the leader, team and organisational levels. The firm is the latest in a number of HR and executive search firms seeking to break into the consulting market by forging a dedicated offering in the sector. Korn Ferry completed a deal for advisory firm Hay Group in 2015 before offering clients access to its own dedicated consulting business, while in the UK, search firm Odgers Berndtson in 2016 entered the consultancy segment with the launch of an independent management consulting division.

Last month another major player laid its first steps in the consulting industry: Bloomberg launched its own business consulting arm in a bid to rival the intelligence units of the renowned strategy houses and the Big Four.